MIA Unveiled

November 2008 Datebook

Decorative Smarts

Eastern Eden

Print Trade

A Rare Few

Gehry's AGO

Urban Studies

Meeting Ground

Top Form

A New Lens

Secret Stash

SOFA's Sweet 15

SEE ALSO

QATAR’S CROWN JEWEL

In the gonzo geography of the Arabian Peninsula, I.M. Pei creates a museum that reflects the landscape's soul.

AND

MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART OPENS IN QATAR

The I.M. Pei–designed five-story museum, with a rich trove of more than 800 artifacts from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, has been highly anticipated by the public.

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The 376,740-square-foot building, with a 164-foot-high domed atrium, houses more than 700 works, including silk carpets, bronze fountain ornaments, earthenware bowls, delicate manuscripts, ivory objects and precious stones.

The Qatar government purchased many of the featured pieces at auction for record sums. The inaugural show, “Beyond Boundaries: Islamic Art Across Cultures,” contains 20 pieces, each lent by a different institution, including London’s British Museum, and the Louvre in Paris.

The 91-year-old Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei came out of his 18-year retirement to design an Islamic-inspired building for the museum, located on a 64-acre island covered with dunes and oases. He created a blocky structure that seems to rise dramatically from the water, its light-filled interior offering a variety of elegant spaces with geometric motifs.

Constructed using concrete from Qatar, limestone from France, granite from the United States and steel from Germany, the MIA is certainly one of the crowning achievements, alongside the National Gallery of Art’s East Building and the Pyramid at the Louvre, of I. M. Pei’s distinguished career. "MIA Unveiled" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.